1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and recording method for recording by enabling a colorant such as ink or toner to adhere to a recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
In a recording apparatus, it has hitherto been known that a colorant container (hereinafter referred to as cartridge) which contains ink, toner, or some others, namely, a colorant for recording on a recording medium, is detachably mounted in the main body of a recording apparatus, and that when the colorant is used up while in recording, the cartridge is replaced by a new one. There are various kinds of cartridges in this respect, thus necessitating the control of the main body of the recording apparatus to change depending on the kind of a cartridge to be mounted in it. As a result, the outer contour of the cartridge is arranged to vary per kind of cartridge as means to provide the main body of the recording apparatus with the information inherent to the cartridge such as its kind and characteristic properties. Thus, when a particular cartridge is mounted, a microswitch or some other controlling means arranged in the main body of the recording apparatus is allowed to be actuated for the implementation of such a control required for the apparatus.
Also, a level sensor is installed in a cartridge, and the information from this level sensor is output to the main body of the apparatus for the provision of the information regarding the colorant remains in the cartridge.
In the meantime, in an ink jet recording apparatus which records on a recording medium by discharging ink on it from the discharging ports, there are some cases that the ink discharging is locally or totally disabled due to the clogging of the discharging ports, the insufficient supply of ink to the discharging ports among others. Therefore, in an ordinary ink jet recording apparatus, a recovery device and others are arranged to keep the discharging ports and its circumference clean. If any trouble such as mentioned above occurs, a recovery process is executed by the recovery device and others.
Nevertheless, the ink jet recording apparatus cannot detect any information regarding the defective ink discharging due to the clogging of the discharging ports or the insufficient supply of ink to the discharging ports. It is, therefore, necessary for the user to detect this visually only in accordance with the recorded medium which has actually been output. Thus, the following problems are inevitably encountered:
(1) When the clogging of the discharging ports is not serious, the defect brought about by this clogging appears only on a limited part of the recorded image. Therefore, the user may easily overlook it when observing the recorded image at a glance.
(2) In a color image recording apparatus, when the recorded color is not the same as the one specifically designated, it is impossible to determine immediately whether the designated color is wrongly taken for recording or such a recorded color is brought about by an abnormality occurring in the apparatus.
(3) Particularly, when a recording on a plurality of sheets is to be executed in succession, there is a possibility that a large amount of recording medium will be wasted eventually if the user does not notice any defective ink discharge while in recording, and the recording is continuously executed to the end as it is.